Tiger Woods PGA Tour series has dominated the golf genre in recent years with it’s unrivaled authenticity and licenses. Tiger is staying one step a head of the game by dropping PGA Tour 10 this season, but can it live up to the fans’ expectations with new precision controls, sharper graphics and improved gameplay?
Players start the game as an amateur, and work their way into becoming one of golf’s finest pros, by earning experience points through completing achievements such as averaging a certain score after a few rounds or winning four out of 10 events and others. The choice is yours; you can play in many of the fantastic PGA tours available. There is the FEDEX cup, the PGA tour series, as well as having the chance to play in some of golf’s most historically famous and memorable scenarios such as trying to top Tiger with his winning shot for his PGA title in 2008.
You begin by creating your own character through seamless modes of customization. Absolutely everything from your character’s physique, facial structure, skin tone, hair style and more. After you have created your unique player you must then allocate experience points to different skill attributes such as, putting, distance, consistency and ball striking to name a few. You are awarded money for placing well within an event, hitting good shots onto greens, sinking long puts and chipping into holes, which can be spent on clubs, balls and established clothing brands such as Puma, Nike, Callaway, Taylor Made, Oakley and more .
The great wealth of customization allows you to select different swing types, putting styles and ball striking. There are so many choices you can make for every shot. Fade and draw shots can be hit either by moving the projected target of where the ball will land left or right, or you can just open or close the ‘face’ of the Wii-mote through your swing as if holding a real golf club. Depending on the club, each iron has three different ways to strike the ball, namely, punch, chop and full. Each one will add or take away spin as well as add or remove distance depending on how far you stand from the green.
The game can be quite difficult to begin with, as to progress; you need to have a par average in most events. To accommodate this, the difficulty level can be adjusted at anytime in a game. At the easier difficulty, there will be ball traces to show you the line and where your ball will land up, this being particularly helpful with putting. At the harder difficulty, there are no projected lines and the your putting style changes to allow you to have more feel and accuracy in your stroke.
If you find yourself stuck or a little tired with the career mode you can also choose on of the many other game modes available such as arcade mode, along with a wealth of mini-games to compete in.
The game uses the wii motion plus’s capability very well. A complete 1:1 reaction time is experienced which allows for you to feel even more connected and immersed in the game. Even without the motion plus, you will still get amazing feedback.
The game also has included two different putting methods and three different swing types to suit how you prefer to hit the ball.
The visuals are sleek and complete. Each golfer has their own unique expressive features and each golf course has been rendered and reproduced almost one hundred percent to their life like counterparts. You will be able to see the brand of ball you are playing with as well as your club make.
The sound is the only major downfall. The sound effects that are emitted through the Wii-mote when the ball is hit doesn’t really resemble the striking of a golf ball but rather that of a barking poodle. The commentating is no better, the same commentator will say one of the three most annoying lines almost every time you don’t hit a moneymaker.
All in all, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 is definitively the golf game to get and hits just about everything right on the scorecard. Great controls, graphics and impeccable attention to detail, put this Wii swinger one swing ahead of the competition.
